# Latin Mass The Latin Mass (Traditional Latin Mass, or Tridentine Mass) is the pre-[[Second Vatican Council]] Roman Rite liturgy celebrated in Latin, displaced by the vernacular Mass after the Council. It has become the central rallying symbol of Catholic traditionalism and, in [[The Octopus]] frame, a marker of the cultural wedge between reformers and the Catholic right. ## The 2007-2021 whipsaw Its permitted use has swung sharply between recent popes. In 2007 Benedict XVI's *Summorum Pontificum* broadly liberalized the older Mass, declaring any Latin-Rite priest could celebrate the 1962 Missal. In 2021 [[Pope Francis]]'s *Traditionis Custodes* reversed course and sharply restricted it, citing a bishops' consultation that found the older Mass was being exploited to foster division. The "Tridentine" lineage traces to the Council of Trent and the 1570 Missal of Pius V. ## Epistemic status The papal documents and dates are established. The Latin Mass functions as an identity marker for the traditionalist movement (the SSPX, the FSSP, and a younger online cohort); the liberalize-then-restrict sequence (Benedict 2007, Francis 2021) is the liturgical embodiment of the same conservative-versus-reformist axis the wedge runs on. ## See also - [[The Octopus]] - [[Second Vatican Council]] - [[Pope Francis]]